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Official: AMF provides $1.3bn to help Arab states in 2020

September 15, 2020 at 1:06 pm

Saudi participants pass by a sign of the Financial Sector Conference held in Riyadh, on April 24, 2019. [FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images]

The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) has provided financial resources worth $1.3 billion to Arab countries during the first half of 2020 to deal with the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, Anadolu news agency reported the organisation’s director general saying.

Speaking at the opening of the 44th meeting of the council of governors of the Arab central banks and monetary authorities, Dr. Abdul Rahman Al- Hamidi said the fund has quickly responded to the Arab countries’ needs and approved borrowing requests in the form of new loans or withdrawals from existing loans, to counter the economic and financial repercussions resulting from the outbreak of the coronavirus or to support reforms.

“The global economy is facing the worst economic crisis after the Great Depression, caused by a variety of factors, most notably the implications of the coronavirus pandemic, growing trade tensions between major economies and rising debt levels, which have affected both advanced and developing economies and are reflected in forecasts related to global economic growth that predict a recession in 2020, with a global economic decline of 0.5 per cent, or 0.8 per cent for advanced economies and 0.3 per cent for emerging and developing economies,” he said.

According to the AMF, the total public debt of Arab countries reached about 123 per cent of GDP last year.

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